Archive for November, 2008

Why not, I have nothing else to do today. Might as well share the pain with all the other Stars fan out there. Liveblog will commense at 4:30, when the pregame starts.

First off, here is some good: 3 Stars players are currently on a point streak

Loui Eriksson is on a 4-game point streak, earning 3 goals and 3 assists for 6 points

James Neal is on a 2-game point streak with 3 goals

Brad Richards is on a 3-game point streak with 1 goal and 3 assists for 4 points

Yes, that is the only positive I can find right now. See y’all when we play Edmonton.

PRE-GAME

They mention that Sergei Zubov won’t be playing tonight, out with an undisclosed injury. Fantastic. He took that weird hit on the boards last game. He didn’t practice yesterday. They mention the trade, and Ludy says his stats tell him he’s somewhat of an offensive minded defenseman and is being brought in to possibly help the offense. Ugh. Just what we need. Razor says the Stars need offense, but they don’t. They need DECENT DEFENSE! This is our main failure this season. Get with the program people.

Crazy hair Ric Renner is holding a mask of Razor on himself. Wow. I forgot it’s Ralph and Razor night at the AAC night tonight. At least Ric Rinner understands it’s about defense. Why is it he’s the only one who seems to be on my side? The Stars players seem confident that they can work to get themselves into the playoffs. Good luck guys, seriously.

Mike Modano has been moved to the wing tonight with Brad Richards at center and Loui Eriksson as the other winger. Modano seems excited, so hopefully this is a good sign. He seems a little too happy…..I’m scared.

And now they go to Crazy hair who is with Tippett, and Crazy Hair managed to get him to laugh. Holy shit. He talks about how Marty needs to play like a top player. Which is so true. Crazy hair mentions that when both he and Tippett wear blue they are undefeated. Oi. Don’t say shit like that.

And here we go…..ugh.

1ST PERIOD

20:00: Richards, Modano and Eriksson make up the opening line and Oilers start with the faceoff win.

19:30: They have Robi back with Grossman I notice as Grossman lets the puck go through his legs.

19:00: Second line is out now, Ribeiro with Avery and Neal. Sydor and Daley on the blueline.

17:50: Janik is out with Niskanen. Petersen, Conner and Parrish is the third line tonight.

17:10: 4th line is out. Barchie and Wilson with Ribeiro, since we really only have 3 centers tonight with Mo on the wing. Brunnstrom hasn’t been out yet…so I wonder where they plan on putting him since he’s on the list to play tonight.

You’d have to expect this when the 30th team in the league plays the 1st. Stars got their asses handed to them. Loui Eriksson and James Neal got the only two Stars goals, the only good that came of this game.

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to those in America! What a great way to start the holidays, with a 4-3 win against the Wild. We owe a lot of thanks to Lady Luck, who helped the Stars get their first win in a while. Going into last night’s game, the Starss were 0 for 12 on the power play over their last 2 games, and would be going up against the leagues #1 penalty kill. It was going to be a tough one, but the Stars always managed to play well against the Wild.

The start of the first period was a lot of back and forth between the Stars and the Wild, both teams fighting for puck posession and being the first team to force momentum in their own direction. James Neal got the scoring started with his first road goal of his career just under 9 minutes into the first period. Then, just a minute later Belanger of the Wild tied it up with a wrister from Marty’s left. Landon Wilson took a penalty jut over 11 minutes into the game, and with just 20 seconds the Wild got a 2-1 lead. Miettinen passed the puck across to Koivu, Marty braces to stop a shot from Koivu and seeing this Koivu passes to Nolan who gets the puck into a practically empty net.

The Wild went into the second period with the same momentum, making it 3-1 when Brunette gets his 7th of the season almost immediately off the draw. Lady luck then stepped in just over 6 minutes into the second. Koivu shot the puck towards the net and everyone thought it had gone in; the goal horn sounded and the ref is crazily pointing. They go to review, only to find the puck bounced between the posts and out and never crossed the line. Talk about something the Stars needed. The Stars used that call to try to force momentum in their directions, working hard to win puck battles and actually playing as a team while in front of Turco. It finally paid off, with just a little over 2 minutes left Neal gets a breakaway and gets one past Backstrom while flying over him to put the Stars just one goal behind.

Going into the third, Lady Luck made a second appearance. Just under 4 minutes in, Marty stumbled while getting his balance after making some saves and used the net to set himself right, unknowingly knocking it off. He comes out to stop a shot, and Koivu shoots the puck into what appears to be an empty net, only to have his second no goal of the night called. Could he be getting Morrow syndrome? Who knows. Then 8 minutes in, Brad Richards gets one in the net to tie it at 3. Then, with exactly 7 minutes remaining, Loui Eriksson deflects a shot from Stephane Robidas past Backstrom to give the Stars their second lead of the game. We hung together and played like we actually trusted each other again, and was able to finally get another win.

The three Stars of the game were

James Neal

Eric Belanger

Brent Burns

I have to wonder why Loui Eriksson was not on this list, he did have a goal and 2 assists.

Tonight, the Stars will be facing the Wild for the second time this season, but the first time in Minnesota. The last time these 2 teams met, the Stars gave the Wild their first regulation loss of the season with a score of 4-2. The Wild have won one of their last three games, while the Stars have only won one of the last seven.

More than likely, Matt Niskanen will be playing after being a healthy scratch the last two games, he always seems to play well against the team from his home state. Parrish and Petersen are also from Minnesota.

While Mark Fistric is still on the roster for the Manitoba Moose, he was injured and is in Dallas to get work done on his knee. I’m not really sure exactly what happened or how injured he is, but that is 2 of 3 for me. Chris Conner, plz 2 b staying healthy.

I am running out of nice ways to say we lost. This was another close one though. Despite the Flyers taking an early lead, Landon Wilson netted his first goal on the Stars to give the leave the Stars trailing 2-1 after the first period. In the second, Mike Modano bookended a Flyers goal to head into the 3rd period tied at 3. But it was Mike Knuble of the Flyers to give them the 4-3 edge that won them the game, despite Brad Richards having an almost completely empty net. He’s doing what he did in pre-season, he waits and gives the goalie the chance to catch up with the game and make an easy save. That will not win us hockey games.

Also, if anyone might have missed it, Steve Ott is out a month with a broken hand that he suffered in his fight Saturday. Sigh.

We got a point, which is still an improvement, especially with Brenden Morrow being out. And they mentioned that nonstop, everytime moment they could fit it in, they would. Just another stab to the gut everytime, as well. In the pre-game show, they mentioned that the Stars are the first team to have 2 players get a hat trick in their team debut, go us! Also, Dave Tippett looked very unhappy during his interview.

The stars came out in the first period and seemed to be taking another step in the right direction. Hiller got his first start against the Stars, since Giguere was pulled 3 of the last 9 starts against the Stars. Usually, it’s the Ducks that get in penalty trouble, but it was even during the first period. Avery took a penalty, then got an extra 2 minutes due to his yapper. And this is what got the Ducks their first goal, the Stars broke down in front of their own net and it was only too easy for Corey Perry to get one past Turco. And 2 seconds later, Barch and Parros got into it, maybe Barch insulted his mullet and pornstache. I guess we’ll never know. Razor found it funny, saying that May must feel like Barch is cheating on him considering they are the usual pair we see fighting when they see each other. Landon Wilson got his first start with the Stars, and got on the score sheet by taking a penaly for hooking, which the Stars were able to kill. I noticed during this first period that Brunnstrom is really starting to gel with the team. He looks a lot more comfortable and confident in his skills at the NHL level. Avery got into a fight of his own 12 minutes in, when him and Kunitz went. Avery is looking more like his old self, the guy we signed, minus the stick-in-the-face waving. Not to be left out, Otter also invited Montador into a fight, and Tippett looked livid on the bench. A fun side note, the Stars lead the NHL in game misconducts. At least we’re number 1 in something. Near the end of the period, the Stars looked like they finally got their shit together, and were going to start the 2nd period with a power play due to Moen taking an elbowing penalty with under a minute left in the first.

The Stars got a 5-on-3 attempt before Moen’s penalty expired, and right before it ended, Eriksson took an interference penalty. Ribeiro got a nice breakaway during a 4-on-4 but Hiller got there to stop it. Hiller looked really good against us, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing him in net the next 4 times we play the Ducks. Avery showed himself to be useful by drawing a penalty on Chris Pronger, that is what I like to see. 10 minutes into the 2nd period, the Stars tied it up with a fantastic goal from Loui Eriksson on a feed from Trevor Daley. Marty Turco also got an assist on the play. At one point when the Ducks were on the attack, Marty began scrambling and accidently knocked the net off and the Ducks shoot the puck in. The NHL made the right call *coughforoncecough* and called No Goal. At the end of the 2nd period, Chris Pronger takes a second penalty, which means the Stars began the 3rd period on the power play.

38 seconds into the third period, Niedermeyer took a penalty, which gave the Stars a long 5-on-3, but were unable to get anything past Hiller. The Stars stayed on it. They looked a lot more trusting, and much more like themselves. Despite not being able to get a 2nd puck in the Ducks net, they also prevented the Ducks from getting another goal themselves. This continued into overtime and resulted in the Stars going to another shootout.

Brad Richards started, speeding up the middle and getting it past Hiller

Corey Perry went wide, and shot it five-hole to tie it up 1-1

Sergei Zubov got stopped by Hiller

Teemu Selanne, the Finnish Flash, was unable to flash it past Turco to keep it tied

Mike Ribeiro tried to go through his legs again, only the puck got a little away from him and Hiller was able to make a save

Ryan Getzlaf managed to get it past Turco, to give the Ducks a 2-1 win.

Despite the loss, the Stars played a good game. But I don’t trust it, I’ve seen this far too much.

The Stars are on the road the next two games, playing Philadelphia tomorrow evening. They recalled Chris Conner to try to give them more depth with Morrow, Lehtinen and Lundqvist out.